


10 Language #writober2020

by YungWenLean



Category: Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YungWenLean/pseuds/YungWenLean
Summary: Rosalein von Kreutzer spoke English fluently when she fled the Empire. She has said "I love you" to some men and "ich liebe dich" to other. She has worked hard. She has always know that language is the key that opens the doors that can be locked for someone named von Kreutzer. That's what she taught Karin. She wished she could teach her more.
Relationships: Walter von Schenkopp/Rosalein von Kreutzer
Kudos: 2





	10 Language #writober2020

**Author's Note:**

> So, still on #writober and apparently my mission in life is to write fic about women who play a huge role in LOGH but are barely looked at in canon. Like Rosalein here. What we know about her is that she has a German name, died quite young and raised Karin by herself. I don't know about you, but to me she sounds like an immigrant single mom, and that's typically the hardest kind of person there is. I haven't seen whatever gaiden mentions their relationship, so this is based on the OVA. That leaves a lot to the imagination.  
> Also, a bit of the other october theme. Check your boobs, ppl.

Rosalein spoke English fluently when she fled. The situation was that being an illegitimate child was only okay as long as the father was alive. Then he died and it turned out that she was a threat to some plans that had been made. Her biological father’s death was probably a part of those plans as well. Rosalein’s mother died of breast cancer earlier that year. Her father’s death didn’t really move her, she had just met him once, by accident. Rosalein’s step father’s family decided that smuggling her out of the Empire was the best possible solution for everyone. Rosalein didn’t mind. First, being killed by her blood relatives was not her best shot at a bright future. And second, Hell, why not? She has always been too free spirited anyway. Being stuck on a planet with a real living (now dead) feudal lord was not what she was cut out for.

Rosalein celebrated her 15th birthday hidden in a cramped cargo storage on a Fezzani ship. Two months later, she was granted asylum in the FPA. She was placed in a room together with three other girls in a huge apartment block in the city of Lagos. The area housed many refugees like her, young men and women from the Empire. There was a complicated interchange in front of the local courthouse that, together with its population, gave that area the name of Pretzeltown. They asked her in German if she wanted to go to school for refugees, she answered in English that she wanted to go to a regular high school in the area. About half of the students in Rosalein’s new school were refugees like her, from educated homes. Just like her they spoke two languages, played the piano or the violin, danced ballet or folk dance, could fence, had good manners. Those who came with their parents were freed from all kinds of house work so that they could get good grades and become doctors and lawyers and investment bankers.

When Rosalein was 16, she could support herself giving private lessons in English to the refugees, and in German to the FPA citizens from the other side of the city. That was a far more dignified and better paying job than what her three roommates had. As soon as she could, she moved out to rent a room in a native speaking lady's apartment. And she read. Rosalein wasn’t a huge reader back home, but here, there were so many books that simply were forbidden in the Empire. Rosalein joined the school paper. At 17 she met her first boyfriend, Antoine. He was born and raised in the Alliance, but his parents had fled from the Empire some thirty years earlier. He could speak German, but not really read or write. They went to the youth center for contraception. The nurse asked Rosalein if there was any history of cancer in her family. Rosalein told the nurse about her mother, aunt Hertha, their mother and their mother’s mother. The nurse told Rosalein that the pill was probably not a good option for her. Antoine got his, so it wasn’t really a problem.

Rosalein wrote an essay about the importance of democracy for a school paper competition and won. Student counselor asked her about what she wanted to do. She was a brilliant student and if she applied for scholarships for refugee kids, maybe she could get into a university with reduced tuition fee. It was a long shot, but worth trying. Rosalein did that and at 18 she started her major in philology and journalism at North Lagos Freedom University. She dated FPA boys who called her Rose. “You moved here four years ago?! I thought you were born here!” they shouted when drunk, and Rosalein was proud. She rented a tiny apartment on her own now, on the outer edge of Pretzeltown. It was a bit of a ride from NLFU, but it was close to her job, teaching advanced English at night school. That’s where she met Siegfried, and that’s how she met Siegfried’s friend Walter.

Walter was stationed at the military base for just a short while, but unlike her FPA admirers, he acted like they had a future. He made sure that she came before he came. “I can’t take the pill” she informed him, just as she always did. After a few months, he was about to leave the planet and she was pregnant. “I thought you were on _something,_ like a _different_ pill” he said to his defence. Walter didn’t know what that _something_ would be, but he just figured that contraception was a girl thing. “You are not keeping it, right?” he told her. “It’s a free country” she replied. When baby Katerose was born, Rosalein sent a card to “Walter von Schönkopf, roughly 21 y o, FPA Army”. He didn’t leave an address, but Rosalein figured that there can’t be too many people with that name. Rosalein went on a year’s leave before placing Katerose in daycare and returning to the university and her teaching job.

After graduation Rosalein kept working as much as she could. She wrote for a local paper and taught English, she proofread and did language reviews for businesses working with Fezzan. She noticed that none of the teachers at Katerose’s daycare were native English speakers, and swore to move out of Pretzeltown. Rosalein managed to arrange for Katerose to start first grade in a school one hour bus ride from their home. She told everyone that they can call her daughter Karin. Karin’s English improved. When Karin was seven, an acquaintance that Rosalein proofread for needed someone to write a perfect brochure for conference cruises, in English and German, over a weekend. Rosalein took the job, and that’s how she got into advertising.

When Karin was eleven, they lived in a three room apartment in New Greendale. It used to be an industrial area separating Pretzeltown from the outskirts inner city, but they turned it into a nice web of apartment blocks, cinemas, shops, arcade halls and restaurants. Karin spoke flawless English in class and flawless German at home, so Rosalein was okay with her speaking a dreadful but somehow refreshing mix of both with her friends. Rosalein had just become the account manager of a driverless taxi company when she found the lump. She sat down and talked to her daughter. She worked as hard as she could through the therapy, but in the end she had to hand over the account to a colleague. When she was back, she worked twice as hard. They moved to the outer part of the inner city. 

The whole situation made Rosalein think about the big picture, and she realised that she was no longer angry at Walter. She looked him up and talked more about him with Karin. She wrote to him, and got a reply, a letter that was not dismissive, but maybe a bit too formal for the occasion – although it might have been Walter trying to be polite in German. Rosalein was good at showing up to her appointments the first year after the tumour was gone. Then she won over a huge female hygiene brand, and a movie theater franchise with branches on three planets. When Karin was 14, just as Rosalein was the year her life turned around completely, she practically dragged her mother to a checkup. The doctor asked if Rosalein wanted to speak German or English when he came back with a concerned look on his face. “English”, said Rosalein. She wanted the words to hurt as little as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Like every normal person, I have thought a lot about how contraception works in the LOGH universe. In my head, the FPA probably have some sort of male and female contraception, because if they didn't have male contraception, the Yang fleet would talk about Poplin and Schönkopf risking fathering a million babies on Iserlohn, but no one cares about that when they slut around. I also think that the Empire has the technology but not the custom of men using contraception, because they are probably a bit more traditional about gender roles. However, judging from the Reuenthal/Elfriede situation, it sounds like abortion is available in the empire (and in the FPA, I presume), and it's the same vibe I get from Hilda, that it's an available option. My guess is that Schönkopf, coming from the empire and having a more traditional vibe in some aspects, probably thinks that male contraception is unmanly and trusts his female partners to solve it.
> 
> I have also been thinking a lot about the languages. Itäs obvious that the FPA mainly uses English and that the empire mainly uses German. Still, they don't use interpreters when they meet over the boarders, so some people have to be bilingual. I'd guess that they teack german in schools in the FPA, but for most it's not super useful. I would guess that it's more common to know German well in the upper classes. In the Empire, my guess would be that the nobles learn English as a part of general good education. Most Fezzaners are probably bilingual.


End file.
